Evolution
Adaptation & Variations | Reprodution & Development | Close Relationships & Origination
Adaptations
While sugar gliders are very closely related to flying squirrels, it is a misconception that they both can actually fly. No, they can't legitimately fly, but the do have flaps of skin connecting their limbs, which enable them to glide from surface to surface. Sugar gliders are about 6 inches long and 6 ounces in size. With above mentioned patagiums, or skin flaps, that they can use as a survival resource from gliding to catch pray or escape predators, but are not as useful against winged predators. Sugar gliders have massive sized eyes. With them being such small animals, their large eyes can be very advantageous to them in scouring prey in the dark, considering they are nocturnal creatures. Sugar gliders also have sizable claws. Sugar gliders long, flat tails that assist them in many ways. For example, they can be used for things ranging from clutching to carrying, they use their tails to steer their bodies when they glide, and they also come in handy when climbing. Variations The sugar glider species ranges with many different variations: there are Albino sugar gliders, Black Beauties, Buttercream, Cinnamon, Crème-Ino, Leucistic (Black Eyed White), Lion, with Mosaic Variations including General Mosaic, Platinum Colored Mosaic, Ringtail Mosaic, and White Mosaic, there are also Platinum Champagnes, Standard Grey, White Face/White Face Blonde, and White tip sugar gliders. Advantages & Disadvantages The darker variations of sugar gliders do have some advantages over the lighter ones, like how the blend into their environment better, hiding from predators. Close Relations It is often mistaken that sugar gliders are a special breed of flying squirrels, but this, is in fact invalid. While the species' are not one in the same, they are related. They both have similar traits, the white bellies and this skin flaps that stretch between their arms and legs. So, in this instance they have analogous structures, or the structurally look the same, but have different purposes. Sugar gliders are marsupial mammals, meaning early development takes place in the mothers pouch, while flying squirrels are placental mammals. They come from a similar ancestral line, and their closest common ancestor is the mammalia, a rodent. Reproduction & Development The reproduction and development of a sugar glider is very similar to that of a kangaroo. Sugar gliders are seasonal breeders, and may be sexually mature as soon a four months oop (out of pouch). But, at about four years of age, a female's reproductive system dramatically begins to slow. The tend to live in colonies of five to fifteen animals and dominant males will often mate with all females. Female gliders go into heat (estrous) every twenty-eight days or so, and ovulation begins two days after it begins. The male will become significantly interested in her during this time, he will mount her back, and she may let out a hissing like sound to indicate that she is ready to mate. She may become pregnant as early as an hour after mating, and the joeys will be born about sixteen days later. After two weeks of being in the mother's pouch, the joey's existence becomes noticeable. By the time a Joey is one month old, they will be about the size of a peanut shell. About a week before the joey leaves the pouch, it begins to develop thin fur on their back and tail. Depending on how many joeys a glider has, the joeys will leave the pouch about nine weeks after birth. Joeys tend to rest their heads in their mother's pouch even after oop. About ten days after oop, joeys will open their eyes for the first time. And about a week oop the young gliders may start to develop fur on their undersides. The joeys obtain the ability to regulate body temperature, but tend to still reside in their mother's pouch for the warmth, and nursing. After about five week oop, joeys will start to try its parent's food, and after about six weeks a joey's tail will fluff out fully. And by eight weeks oop, a Joey is naturally weaned. Origination Sugar gliders were earliest found in northern and eastern Australia. One vesitigial structures that sugar gliders have that differ from their ancestors is that with the growing population wingers predators, their flaps became less useful in gliding for a successful escape. |